Division of Clinical Immunology

Barbara Murphy, MD, Named Chair of the Department of Medicine at Mount Sinai School of Medicine

The appointment makes Dr. Murphy the first female chair of Medicine of an academic medical center in New York City.

New York

– November 27, 2012 /Press Release/ ––

Barbara Murphy, MD, MB, BAO, BCh, FRCPI, a renowned physician-scientist specializing in transplant immunology research, has been named the Chair of the Samuel F. Bronfman Department of Medicine at Mount Sinai School of Medicine. The appointment makes Dr. Murphy the first female chair of Medicine of an academic medical center in New York City. She has been the acting chair of the Department of Medicine, the largest department at Mount Sinai, since June, and Chief of its Division of Nephrology since 2004.

"For the past eight years, Dr. Murphy has demonstrated incredible leadership in the Division of Nephrology and helped elevate Mount Sinai's already renowned transplant programs to a new level," said Dennis S. Charney, MD, Anne and Joel Ehrenkranz Dean, Mount Sinai School of Medicine, and Executive Vice President for Academic Affairs, The Mount Sinai Medical Center. "Her innovative approach to patient care, research, and education will undoubtedly extend the reach of Mount Sinai's Department of Medicine as one of the finest in the nation."

Said Dr. Murphy, "The faculty in Mount Sinai's Department of Medicine is recognized nationally and internationally as among the best in their fields. I'm thrilled and honored to take on the challenge of leading this extraordinarily talented team in our unified mission of providing unsurpassed excellence in patient care, research and education."

Dr. Murphy is also the Irene and Dr. Arthur Fishberg Professor of Medicine; the Director of Conduits at The Institute for Translational Sciences; and the Dean of Clinical and Population Based Research. Her current area of research is focused on the use of genomics and genetics to investigate outcomes following renal transplantation.

Dr. Murphy has been continuously funded by the National Institutes of Health since 1997. She holds one patent for peptide that inhibits the immune response and is awaiting approval for another for a urinary biomarker that predicts the development of fibrosis in renal transplants. She publishes in top level journals, presented more than 100 invited lectures and speeches, and is currently the Associate Editor for Transplantation Reviews and The Clinical Journal of the American Society of Nephrology, and a Consulting Editor for American Journal of Transplantation. Additionally, Dr. Murphy has held many national leadership positions, including her current role as President of the American Society of Transplantation.

Dr. Murphy received her MD from the Royal College of Surgeons in Dublin, Ireland. She completed her Residency and Clinical Nephrology Fellowship at Beaumont Hospital, Dublin before moving to the United States for a Nephrology Fellowship in the Renal Division of Brigham and Women's Hospital, Harvard Medical School in Boston, where she focused on transplant immunology during the research component. She was recruited to Mount Sinai School of Medicine as the Director of Transplant Nephrology for the Renal Division. At the time she was named Chief of the Renal Division, she was one of youngest, and one of the few female division chiefs, in the United States.

About The Mount Sinai Medical Center

The Mount Sinai Medical Center encompasses both The Mount Sinai Hospital and Mount Sinai School of Medicine. Established in 1968, Mount Sinai School of Medicine is one of the leading medical schools in the United States. The Medical School is noted for innovation in education, biomedical research, clinical care delivery, and local and global community service. It has more than 3,400 faculty in 32 departments and 14 research institutes, and ranks among the top 20 medical schools both in National Institutes of Health (NIH) funding and by U.S. News & World Report.

The Mount Sinai Hospital, founded in 1852, is a 1,171-bed tertiary- and quaternary-care teaching facility and one of the nation's oldest, largest and most-respected voluntary hospitals. In 2012, U.S. News & World Report ranked The Mount Sinai Hospital 14th on its elite Honor Roll of the nation's top hospitals based on reputation, safety, and other patient-care factors. Mount Sinai is one of 12 integrated academic medical centers whose medical school ranks among the top 20 in NIH funding and U.S. News & World Report and whose hospital is on the U.S. News & World Report Honor Roll. Nearly 60,000 people were treated at Mount Sinai as inpatients last year, and approximately 560,000 outpatient visits took place.